Biomarkers in Interventional Oncology

Dear Colleagues,

Targeted minimally invasive procedures are being increasingly used in multimodality concepts of personalized cancer treatment. Interventional oncology applies thermal energy, radiation, or local delivery of chemotherapeutic agents at a high dosage directly into the tumor under image guidance in order to treat cancer more effectively. Interventional oncology plays an increasing role and is now considered the fourth pillar of oncology particularly for oligometastases where patients with limited metastatic disease are still considered curable. Response assessment of those minimally invasive therapies is nevertheless limited. Traditional imaging criteria, such as the response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST), frequently fail to assess, in a timely manner, the effect of minimally invasive cancer treatment. Liquid biopsies (i.e., blood analyses) can greatly supplement response assessment by non-invasively providing very specific biomarkers of tumor biology and its spread, or response to treatment. The role of biomarkers to gauge the response to minimally invasive tumor treatments is the primary topic of this Special Issue. We aim to procure high-quality research, as well as review articles, that address the available kinds of biomarkers to improve therapy monitoring in interventional oncology. Reports of studies combining biomarkers from solid or liquid biopsy together with Radiomics within an integrated diagnostics approach are particularly welcome.

Dr. Marianna Alunni-Fabbroni
Prof. Moritz Wildgruber
Prof. S. Nahum Goldberg
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.